eollinasworte



(No Moden zsheets-sheet 1 J. HOLLINGSWORTH.

MILL FOR REDUCING GRAIN, &0.

Patented Nov. 14

(No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 2.

` J-. HOLLINGSWORTH.

GMILL FORREDUGING GRAIN, &0.

No.267,347. -Patented Noml l, 1882.

gr omwu WM 4? UNHE STATES ATENT arrest -JEHU HOLLINGSWORTH, Ol` NEW YORK, N. Y.

MILL FOR` REDUCINGGRAIN, &0.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patert No. 267347, dated November 14, 1862.

Application filed July 15, 1881. (No model.)

To all whom it may concem Be it known that I, J EHUHOLLINGSWORTH, of the city, county, and State of New York, have invented certain Improvements in Mills for Reducing Grain, &c., of which the following is a specification.

ln the manufacture of flour, meal', 830., there are two representative processes in common use, one consisting substantially in crushing the grain or material between rollers with differential motion, the other consisting substant'ally in subjectingthe grain or material to the action ot' gri'nding and abrading surfaces, the former involviug the use of expensive machinery, but producing an excellent quality of flour or meal, the latter capable of application by means of comparatively cheap and simple machinery, but prod ucing an inferior product and requiring skilled labor in its management. The mech anism employed in the production ot' fiour, meal &c., by subjecting the grain ormaterial to the action of grinding and abrading surfaces mayitself be divided into two Glasses,

r one embracing the ordinary millstones, the

other the combination of a cylindrical grinding-stone with a concave or. sector shaped grinding-plate, the grinding-surl'ace of which is substantially concentric with the cylindrical grinding-surtace of the stone, and generally embracing one-quarter (or more) of its circumference; but these two Varieties of apparatus operate on substantially the same principle-namely, that of subjecting the grain or article to be reduced to an abrading and grinding action as distinguished from a crushing action.

The object of myinvention is to provide for' the manufacture of flour, meal, 850., of a qualityequal to that produced by crushing between rollers with differential motion, and With as little attention as is required in the said operation of crushing between rollers, and yet with the simplicity of mechanism characteristic of the operation of grinding between abrasive surfaces, by which means I avoid the drawbacks incidental to both of the former operations of manufacturing fiour, meal, &c.-viz., the great expense of rollers and the comparativel y poor quality of millstone manufactureand secure the advantagesincidental to both.

My invention consists in certain novel combinations of parts, hereina'fter more fully set forth.

Figure 1 is a trausverse vertical sectional view, and Fig. 2 is a plan and partial horizontal sectional View, of an apparatus embracing my novel combiuations of parts aforesaid. Fig. 3 is a horizontal sectional View through a plane just above the rollers. Fig. etis an end. elevation of the apparatus, and Fig. 5 is a detail View, showing a modification in thecorrugations of the rollers-that is to say, showing said corrugations in a position oblique to the v aXes of motion of the rollers, instead of substantially parallel therewith.

A A' A" are rollers, made of stone, metal, or other suitably hard material. y

Placed adja-cet to each roller is a beam, B B' B", as the case may be, the lower end of which rests on a fulcrun, a, while the upper end is capable of lateral adjustment to and from the adjacent roller, A A' A", as the case may be, by means of a screw, b, which passes through a nut suitably arranged in the strong or solid framework of the apparatus.

The screw b is provided atits outer end with a handwheel, a', whereby it may he turned, and at its inner end with a head, b', which rests upon the adjacent inner surface of the beam B, the screw b passing through a slot in the said end of the beam B B' B", as the case may be, so that by turning the screw b in the proper direction the beam maybe swung away from the roller A to the requisite degree. Another screw, c, provided with a suitable handwheel, whereby it may be turned, passes through a suitable nut in the frame ot' the apparatus and bears against the free end of a spring, f, the opposite end of which is attached to the beam in such manner that the springf 90 tends to press the beam toward the adjacent roller, the degree of this pressure being adjusted by means of the screw c.

Each beam is provided with a transverse dovetailed socket,in which is placed a correspoudingly-shaped bed,0 G' G, as the case may be, the face or outer surface of which is substan` tally tan gential to the adjacent rollerA A A", as the case may be. The said bed of each beam is fixed in position by suitable bolts, d. By means ofthe screw I the beam is so adj usted that the face or outer surface of the bed is prevent- IOO ed from cemingin absolute contact with the adjacent roller, the said bed being kept a distance equal to, say, the thickness of a sheet of paper from the surface et' said roller, this distance being increased according to the size to which it is designed te reduce the material by the action of any ene of the rollers and its adjacent bed. Thus, fer example, if the degree of cemminution is represented by diameters of one-sixteenth ofan inch, the distance between the face of the bed and the cylindrical surface et' the roller would be one-sixteenth of an ineh, and so on proportionately for any other desired degree of comminution.

Above each roller is a hopper, D, from the threat of which extends downward an apron or partiton, e, designed to prevent the material passed l'rom the hopper D from passing otherwise than downward between the rollers and their adjacent beds, O C' (3"-in other words by preventing the grain er material from alighting upon the roller and receiving abrasien by the movement ot' the surfaces thereof. In the threat ot' each hopper D, moreover, is placed a feed-roll, g, the object ot' which is to prevent the grain or material from clegging at the threat of the hopper, and also, in connection with the swinging gate to regulate the quantity et' grain or material passed downward to the roller in any given time. This gate is piveted at its upper end, as shown at a and is adjusted toward or from the feed-roller g by means of a screw, j, working through a nut attached to the frame of the apparatus.

\Vhen the grain or other material froni the hopper D is fed downward in suitable quantities it is directed by the partition or apron e down to the point where the roller and the adjacent bed approach each other, and along the line of suitable, but not actual, contact between the said roller and the said bed, is subjected to a crushlng action as great as that to which the sane er similar material is subjected when passed between two crushing-rollers having a differential motien, and is thereby reduced to the requisite degree of finenessthat is to say, to a degree of cenminution proportiened to the distance between the roller and its adjacent bed. By this means the material is reduced to the degree of fineness just indicated without being subjeeted to any material degree of frictienal contact from the reducing-surtaces, and without being abraded, as would be the case if it were subjected to what may be termed a grinding er abrading action, as distinguished from a purely crushing action, the resultof this beingthat the fibrous cuticle or bran of the grain is broken or detached without being sceured and without having its particles mingled with the fleur or resulting product.

The apparatus is vertically divided into a number ot' subdivisions or cempartments corresponding in number to the numbers of rollers A A' A" and their adjuncts, which it is desired to embody in the machine, there being in each of these cempartments net-only a roller, beam, bed, partitien, er apron, e, hopper D, and the miner adjuncts hereinbefore described, but also at the lower part thereof a chute, E, which conducts the crushed material, as the latter falls from the roller and bed, to an inclined sieve er screen, F, to which a shaking motion nay be given by any suitable means as, for example, by an eccentric, h working against the end ol" the said screen. The latte', however, maybe actuated by any suitable nechanism, there being required therelor the exercise of mere mechanical judgment.

Under each screen, and attached thereto, is an apron, t", which serves to guide the material which passes through the screen to a receptacle, Gr, (which said receptacle is in practice the hopper of an ordinary 'eel, which shakes eut the tlour from the material passed therete from the receptacle or hepperG,thereby separating the middlings, ot' which I shall speak farther on herein,) while the material which does not pass through the screen is shaken oft' at the end of the latter into another receptacle, H, technically terned the boot of an elevater, inasmuch as above it there is placed a truuk, I, in which works an ordinary mill-elevator, K, composed et' an endless belt working through suitable pulleys at top and bottom, and constructed with suitable buckets. The operation ot' this elevater K is to take the material 'from the boot II and lift it to the spent L, over which the material passes inte the hopper et' the set of rollers A A', bed G U', &c., next adjacent to that from which the material has been passed to the boot H, the spouts L being fer this purpose bent laterally, as represented in Fig. 2.

As represented in the drawings, the apparatus is formed with six con'partments, and consequently is designed for use with six sets of rollers A A' A, & -c., and their adjuncts. Three of these rollers and their adjuncts are placed in line in their several conpartments at one side et' the apparatus, and the other three are similarly situated at the opposite side of the apparatus. The elevaters K and the devices connected therewith are se arranged that the first elevater takes the material passed from the first et' the rollers, A, and its bed O and carries 1t to the hopper ot' the second roller, and so en, in succession, to each of the sets of devices, which embrace as their essential elements a roller and bed. Furthernere, it is to be observed that the first set, eempesed of the roller A and bed 0, is adjusted to coarsely crush the material. The next, A U', is adjusted te crush the already broken material still finer, and se on, until the quantity is exhausted, leaving nothing but the bran to pass through, say, the third set of rollers, A, and bed G", respectively.

Now, in the aferesaid operation, in asm uch as the separatien ef the middlings from the fleur is a matter well understood by nillers, and in the IOU IIO

present state of the art capable of being carried on by well-known meohanical means, I need not here describe it in detail. There has been, as hereinbefore explained, a separation of the middlings from the other material passed down therewith through the receptacles or hoppers Gr, there being such a separation of middlings, by the use of apparatus hereinbefore explained, from the product passed down separately through each of the receptacles or hoppers G. After the grain itself has been eX- haustively treated by being passed through a number of the rollers and their adjacent beds, as hereinbefore explained, there remains the further step ofsimilarlytreatingthe middlings, and this is done by supplying the middlings to that one of the hoppers, D, succeeding the next adjacent to that one at which the conclusion of the direct treatment of the grain itself is reached. In practice this will be accomplished by the three sets of rollers A A' A" and beds C O' G" at the opposite side of the apparatus, the middlings being successively reduced to fiour in substantially the same manner as the grain has been previously reduced to mid dlings and flour, the operation comprising the two successive stages of first red ucing the grain to niddlings, fionr, and bran, and then, aftcr the separation of the middlings, reducing the latter'to flour by substantially the same mechanical process employed in the first stage. It will be seen, therefore, that the grain is finally brought to the condition of fiour by a method of gradual reduction, and that a degree of eXcellence in the product and of cheapness in the operation is secured,ful1y equal to that resulting from the use of costly differential rollers, by means of mechanisn as simple andcheap in construction as the simpler forms of grinding-mills hitherto in use.

As concerns the construction of the rollers A A' A", &(3., and their beds O C' G", 850., the same may be made of stone or iron, or of any other suitable material; or one of the rollers may be made of one material and the other or others ofa different material. In any case, however, the circumferential or comminuting-surface of these rollers should have its own peculiar surface different in character from the corresponding surfaces of the other rollers. Thus, for example, the roller A will have a surface of a character adapted to a coarse or rough crushing ot' the grain when subjected to the action of the said roller and its adjacent bed. The next adjacent roller, A', should have a surface of a character adapted to still further rednce the comminuted material formed by the action on the grain of the comparatively coarse or rough surface of the preceding roller A, and so on with reference to any additional rollers that may be em ployed. When the rollers are made of metal their circu m ferential surfaces are corrugated the depth, width, and general character of the corrugations corresponding to the function ofthe roller, according as it is designed for a coarse or for a finer crushing of the grain. These corrugations may be in a direction across the rollersthat is to say, substantially parallel with their axes ofmotion, as indicated in Fig. 3; or they may be made oblique to said aXes of motion, as represented in Fig. 5.

What I claim as my invention is 1. In an apparatus for comminuting or reducinggrain, Sto., to meal or flour, the combination of a series of rollers, A A', Sto., having suitable grinding-surfaces of"different degrees of fineness, and placed side by side upon the same aXis with a series ot' resisting-beds, C C', &c., each arranged substantially tangential to thecircumference of its'adjacent roller, all substantially as and for the purpose herein set forth.

2. In an apparatus for comminuting or reducing grain, &(3., to meal or flour, the combination of a series of rollers, A A', 850., having suitable grinding-surfaces of different degrees of fineness, with a series of grindingbe ds, G G', Ste., pivoted and separately adjustable beans B, stops I), springs F, screws a, and mech anism, substantially as described, for conducting the comminuted material from one roller and its adjacent grinding-bed to another, the whole constructed and arranged substantially as and for the purpose herein set forth.

JEHU HOLLINGSWORTH.

Witnesses.

DANFORTH BEGKER, THOMAS E. URossMAN. 

